Solzhenitsyn and Benedict XVI both quote Dostoevsky's "beauty will save the world" remark. Solzhenitsyn expanded on that a bit in his 1972 Nobel lecture.
...a true work of art carries its verification within itself: Artificial
and forced concepts do not survive their trial by images; both image
and concept crumble and turn out feeble, pale, and unconvincing.
However, works which have drawn on the truth and which have presented it
to us in concentrated and vibrant form seize us, attract us to
themselves powerfully, and no one ever—even centuries later—will step
forth to deny them.
So perhaps the old trinity of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty is not
simply the decorous and antiquated formula it seemed to us at the time
of our self-confident materialistic youth. If the tops of these three
trees do converge, as thinkers used to claim, and if the all too obvious
and the overly straight sprouts of Truth and Goodness have been
crushed, cut down, or not permitted to grow, then perhaps the whimsical,
unpredictable, and ever surprising shoots of Beauty will force their
way through and soar up to that very spot, thereby fulfilling the task of all three.
And then no slip of the tongue but a prophecy would be contained in Dostoyevsky’s words: “Beauty will save the world.”...
There is a logic which flows from that trinity of TruthGoodnessBeauty. Solzhenitsyn begins thus:
...We shall be [asked]: What can literature do in the face of a remorseless
assault of open violence? But let us not forget that violence does not
and cannot exist by itself: It is invariably intertwined with the lie.
They are linked in the most intimate, most organic and profound fashion:
Violence cannot conceal itself behind anything except lies, and lies
have nothing to maintain them save violence....No longer does violence always and necessarily lunge straight for your
throat; more often than not it demands of its subjects only that they
pledge allegiance to lies, that they participate in falsehood.
This is what underlies the phrase "You will be made to care." Roe and Obergefell are the two pre-eminent lies of this era in the US. Political Correctness is the third. The lies require violence that is manifested in the Government's powers of enforcement: imprisonment and/or stripping one's assets.
To Solzhenitsyn, the remedy is Beauty--true Art.
...it is within the power of writers and artists to do much more: to defeat
the lie! For in the struggle with lies art has always triumphed and
shall always triumph! Visibly, irrefutably for all! Lies can prevail
against much in this world, but never against art....
(And yes, that is precisely what was voiced by Christ: "The Truth shall set you free.")
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